On New Year’s Day I woke up, grabbed the laptop, and crawled back into bed to check my email. There was the usual assortment of Groupons, sales at Banana Republic, and emails from my dad with links to New York Times articles. Among all these was a notification from a fellow Word Press blogger who was kind enough to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger Award! What a great way to start off the new year!

I had heard of this before, but I wasn’t entirely sure what it entails. Fortunately another VBA winner started a blog with the guidelines for accepting your nomination. Basically I need to nominate 15 other bloggers and then share 7 things about myself.

First though, I want to thank In Her Chucks for nominating me. In addition to being the mom of a beautiful little girl, In Her Chucks manages to create amazing-looking meals, often taking advantage of the produce that she gets delivered weekly (which has further encouraged me to think about doing the same thing). Really, she had me at Beet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Beets? In cake?? Brilliant!

So now, the first five nominations:

Annie’s Cooking Lab. This morning when I received my daily blog subscriptions and saw Annie’s recipe for Cookies ‘n Cream Popcorn, I remembered why I had been intending to include her in this list. She offers delicious recipes for lots of baked goods and vegetarian meals, all with the help of her faithful sidekick and yellow lab, Boomer. I’ll admit that the picture of Boomer with the cupcakes is what first drew my attention to the blog. His intent gaze towards the cupcakes reminds me very much of our late black lab-Dalmatian mix (whose name, coincidentally, was Annie).

Most Likely To Marry. Tammy’s blog, which focuses on her marriage, is wonderfully honest. As a newcomer to marriage, I really appreciate how upfront Tammy is about struggles that she and her husband have encountered, and what has worked for them. The fact that she manages to be open about all aspects of marriage, including sex, without creeping over into exhibitionism is something I admire.

Movita Beaucoup. Not everyone can meld well-written recipes with beautiful photographs and an awesome sense of humor. Movita can. She also holds Gingerbread House competitions on her blog, which is pretty darn cool. I like interactive blogs. And as I was just scanning her impressive list of recipes (there are a lot!) I’m thinking I’ll be revisiting the list in a couple weeks after this food cleanse is over.

Spite or Flight. I know I’ve mentioned Ashley’s blog before, but she absolutely deserves to be on the list. She cooks delicious-looking things, makes beautiful-looking things, and tells hilarious stories. My favorites are the ones about her mother. She is another person on this list who is open about rather personal things (I mean, the tagline of her blog is “One woman’s tales of baby-making, joblessness, and eating too much”) but never strays over to where you think, “Uh, is this really something you want to be broadcasting to anyone with an internet connection?”

The Surfing Pizza. If you’re ever around first thing in the morning and hear me laughing out loud, it’s probably because I’ve just received an email with a new blog entry from The Surfing Pizza. I was first introduced to the Surfing Pizza when his Thanksgiving, Third Grade Lunch Style was freshly pressed. And I was sold after reading about his honeymoon in Disney World. Thank you, Surfing Pizza, for making me laugh and the numerous, “Oh, I remember that!” moments.

Like this:

Related

7 responses to “Versatile Blogger Award! (Part 1)”

Thanks, Sarah! I feel like it really is a fine line between being honest about things (like my expanding waistline – omg, or my worthless ovaries) and sharing too much. Thankfully my Grandma is a regular reader, so I always think to myself, “Is this something I’d say to Nanny at dinner.” Thanks so much for the nomination — I’d never heard of the VBA either — I’m off to share the love!!

Lynne, Thanks so much for stopping by. I love the networks of blogs- the great ones that I have found through other great ones. I’m glad you left a comment- I look forward to reading more of your blog!